


Another farewell

by VampireBait



Category: Critical Role
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-16
Updated: 2018-09-18
Packaged: 2019-02-03 07:59:28
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,740
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12744258
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VampireBait/pseuds/VampireBait
Summary: Set after episode 115. Keyleth will say many goodbyes, this is one more.





	1. Chapter 1

Deep in the ancient forest surrounding Whitestone, in a hidden place know by only three people in the whole of Exandria an old woman sat and stared out at the trees without seeing them. In her lap she absently carressed a cloak of shimmering deep blue ignoring the sparks of magic that occasionally licked at her delicate fingers. 

Behind her a tree suddenly seemed to tremble and the bark tore itself to the side to reveal a doorway and the briefest glimpse of a wide cliff-face before a young red-headed woman stepped gracefully through alighting on the leaflitter just as the portal closed behind her.

The Voice of the Tempest adjusted the heavy mantle at her shoulders then crossed to the bench, she took a seat beside the old woman reaching out to clasp her hand.

“Cabal’s ruin? I thought you’d have passed that on to the children by now.” She let her fingers run over the fabric gently.

The old woman sighed heavily “I keep telling you Keyleth, the children are grown long ago. Even the youngest has great-grandchildren now.”

Keyleth blinked smiling awkwardly. “You’re right, I just...they’ll always be the children to me.”

Vex’ahlia De Rolo chuckled dryly turning her gaze fondly on the young woman beside her. “Me too. I hope I’m still young in your mind, when you think back on me.”

Keyleth blinked back sudden tears and forced a smile “Everyone of you is the same to me as that first day in Stillben.”

Vex gave her hand a squeeze, she coughed weakly waving away Keyleth’s concern before she could raise it. Her eyes returned to the Vestige on her lap.

“After a hundred years without him, the ache never dies does it? Percy, when we found him in that dungeon...who’d have thought it.”

She smiled fondly “He was so proud of what Whitestone became.” 

“And we were so proud of him.” Keyleth’s voice broke as she said it. Vex waited a moment, letting her gather herself before she gently lifted Cabals Ruin and passed it into the suprised Druids arms. It was only then that the twisted vinelike bow, Fenthris was revealed resting against her legs.

“It’s time you took these Keyleth.” She said it with a smile but Keyleth flinched as though she’d been struck.

“No...no Vex I-I can’t...no.”

The old half-elf woman pulled her tightly into her arms even as Keyleth burst into tears.

“Shhhhh, it’s alright. We knew, we’ve known for so long that this day would come. You can’t fight time Keyleth, and time has come for me.” She gently lifted the druids face and kissed her cheek. Her own cheeks were damp and the smile on her face sad but genuine. “Would you keep me from our boys?” 

Keyleth sobbed shaking her head. She took the cloak and hugged it to her chest gasping as a sudden scent long forgotten gave her a flash of a young human male with a shock of white hair.

Vex bent with a groan to scoop up the bow. She touched it to her lips and traced the carved words on its length with trembling fingertips.

Keyleth accepted it gathering her composure as best she could.

“I wish...” she stopped to take a breath. “Some days, days like this I wonder how much he would hate me if I broke my promise.”

“What promise dear?”

Keyleth looked down at the bow and then to the markings on the bench Pike had made after Vax had gone.

“To live a thousand years.” 

Vex reached out to tug gently on an antler bringing her gaze back up and for a moment the years faded away and she was younger, raven hair braided with two blue feathers and her eyes so like his. 

“I know it’s hard dear, but you have so much to do, so much to give to this world.”

“But I’m already so tired, Vex.” 

The old woman nodded at that knowing the feeling all too well. “You cannot come with me on this adventure, my sweet, sweet Keyleth.”

She brushed away a strand of hair from the druid’s cheek fondly. “You always were the cool one you know. I made sure he knew you were cooler than he was.” Her grin was infectious and Keyleth laughed despite herself.

She reached up to take Vex’s hand holding it tightly. “You make sure to tell him-“

“He knows dear, but I’ll tell him anyway. I’ll tell them all everything.”

Vex laughed then coughed again her frail body rocking painfully with each gasp.

She rested herself back against the bench her shoulder against Keyleth’s.

“You were always my sister Kiki.”

Keyleth smiled “and you were always mine Vex’ahlia.”

The old woman snorted at the use of her full name but winced when another cough shook her.

“Will you help me back to Whitestone dear? I’m very tired, but I want to just sit for a moment longer with you.” 

She leant her head on Keyleth’s shoulder and closed her eyes breathing in the scent of the forest and the warmth of the young druid.

Keyleth held her as she slipped peacefully into sleep. 

A Raven called from the trees above them though she could not see him. 

“I love you Vax.” Keyleth whispered it to the winds feeling the absence of a reply more keenly than a blade.

Time seemed to stop. She sat there alone for a moment more and if she wept only the trees bore witness to it. Finally as the trees grew red with the setting sun she gathered herself and turned to brush a kiss to the top of Vex’s head.

Without disturbing her burden she waved her hand and the Vestiges vanished into her own private pocket dimension. 

She rose carefully and with another wave Vex’ahlia’s body began to float in the air, her face radiant in her final moment, a smile of contentment forever on her lips. 

Keyleth touched her forehead to her, feeling the cold where warmth had always been. She whispered a final farewell before doing as she had promised, and taking the Baroness back home to Whitestone.


	2. Percy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I didn’t intend to make a series of Keyleth’s goodbyes but, i’m find That it helps me deal with the grief of a recently lost loved one.
> 
> So here’s a moment set a hundred or so years before chapter one.

It was Percy’s legacy that killed him, as surely as that first bullet fired by Ripley, it tore into him and burned its way through.

Keyleth watched him over the years. She saw the anger in his eyes when he heard about the “Firearms” in the Dwindolian empire, he yearned to go and wipe them from the face of Exandria, but the children were young, and they needed their father just then. 

Keyleth and Grog went in his stead, they purged the stores of Blackpowder wherever they found it. Drove fear into the hearts of those that used it, even killed some when the encounters turned deadly. But the Empire would not be dissuaded, and year after year, venture after venture, the vile things spread.

Keyleth sat now on the edge of the canopy bed in the master bedroom at Whitestone castle. Lost among the sheets was an old, frail human man, his skeletal fingers gripping her strong, young hand.

The body was so different, but the eyes were the same, so were the urgings. Percival De Rolo’s anger and rage would not be contained in the dying vessel that was his body.

“…wherever you find them, Keyleth!! You understand?! Wipe them out, you can do that, do that for me“ he coughed painfully, the spasms lifting his skeletal frame out of the bed. 

Keyleth held him as the spasms eased, a flick of the wrist and a wooden cup magically appeared in her hand, cool water filling it from nothing. He accepted it gratefully.

Keyleth wasn’t crying, her chest and throat burned with the need but her eyes refused to start, she looked away from him, across the room where Elaina De Rolo sat. Vex’s eldest daughter met her gaze with sadness, shaking her head at the unasked question.

Keyleth already knew of course. Black powder was in the world, there was no stopping it, and all she could offer her best friend in his last hours was lies and false promises. So she said nothing to him and he, as he always had, saw the truth in her eyes anyway.

Percy lay back against the pillows with a defeated groan, his skeletal hand lifting to cover his eyes as he fought to calm himself. Eventually he lowered his hand to the sheets again and looked towards his daughter. 

“Elaina, would you excuse us?”

“Yes, Father.” 

Elaina stood gracefully, her 40 years showing around her eyes and in the swell of her body, but she had her mother’s looks and her Father’s intensity. Keyleth smiled at her as she came over to give her a parting kiss on the cheek.

“I’ll be outside should he need anything Aunt Keyleth.”

“We’ll be fine Elaina, thank you.”

She closed the door behind her and Percy sighed.

“You held her in your arms when she was only a few hours old.” He said smiling up at The voice of the Tempest. 

“Yet now she looks like she could be your mother.”

“Percy…” now the tears came, he said it with wonder, not reprimand, but how could it not hurt when he looked as he did and she was still in the prime of her youth?

He smiled at her, tears in his eyes as well. “I didn’t really believe it you know. That you could live more than a thousand years but…you still look like you did when you came to that dungeon in Stillben.”

Keyleth shook her head. “I’ve aged same as you, it just doesn’t show on the outside. You know…if I’d had the choice…”

He hushed her softly “You did, and it was one well made.”

The old man in the bed gestured painfully to the portrait behind her. She looked and regarded the familiar figures standing proudly there. Percy, younger than now, but still aged, Vex’alia at his side, a babe on her lap and her hand in young Elaina’s. She had been 11 then and already stunning. In her arms she held her baby brother. At their feet Trinket lay, his head on his paws and four boys and girls sitting around or on top of the patient creature.

Percy watched her take it in before he spoke. 

“Do you think, Keyleth, that I could leave knowing what I leave behind if I knew you were not going to be here to watch over them?”

She turned to him and found him smiling his darkest smile, his eyes flashing with sudden shadow that had never fully left him.

“Bloody impossible to die as one intends when your surrounded by Elves and Clerics.”

“Are you complaining that we healed you?”

“Yes! I might have still been handsome if you hadn’t! Granted chemical and radiation poisoning wouldn’t have been a picnic, but still, all that work over all those years, and not a single internal rupture, or break down to show for it! What kind of scientist does that make me?”

She smiled fondly squeezing his fingers in hers “The greatest Exandria ever had.”

Percy chuckled weakly. “Well now, that is nice to hear.” 

They lapsed into silence for a moment before he asked quietly.

“What do you think Keyleth. Will Ioun welcome me? Have I done enough? Shared enough knowledge now?” 

He sighed and coughed once more, wincing.

“It hurts doesn’t it? To be refused by a God. I was refused twice and yet I can’t get that library out of my mind…it haunts me…that in my pride I might have ruined my chance too…”

“Hush Percy. You’re Percival Fredrickstein Von Moussel Klowolskie De Rolo the Third of Whitestone and Vox Machina. Ioun owes you more than she can ever repay, her doors will be open to you.” 

Keyleth squared her shoulders. “And if not, she will find Vox Machina at her door and we will not give quarter.”

He laughed, but it wasn’t one of amusement, it was one she’d heard once before, years ago when Whitestone had been a darker place and Percy a darker soul.

“I don’t have to go you know.” 

The room went suddenly colder as he reached under the covers and brought out a folded piece of yellowed paper. 

“I need only invoke the final pact, and I could walk with you and them.” He gestured with trembling fingers at the portrait of Vex’alia and their children. 

“For a thousand years!”

New strength seemed to fill him as he waved the contract in front of her eyes. 

“I could stay and wipe out my legacy! Raise an army to cleanse it from the face of Exandria!”

He was shaking, breathing hard, his eyes bright. Truly frightening to anyone, except Keyleth, who smiled, shook her head and gently removed the paper from his fingers.

“But you won’t.” she whispered to him, knowing it was true, knowing he was not that person anymore. 

He blinked as she took it and stared after it as she placed it inside her bag of holding.

“No…” he breathed at last. “No…I don’t deserve that anymore…” he sagged as though a weight had left him then.

Keyleth helped him back into the pillows, touched his forehead and let some of her magic wash through, she felt where the pain was and took it away. He sagged further and there was a catch in his throat as he thanked her.

“I’m sorry.” she whispered “I love you Percy, if I could keep you I would, but not like that.”

He lifted his hand to wipe the tears from her fair cheek. 

“I’ve lived a full life, and that’s so much more than most of my family can say.”

Keyleth kissed his fingers. “Percy, your legacy is not Black Powder, it’s not your guns. It’s Whitestone.” 

She gestured and across the room the windows opened, letting in a blast of cool air. 

A moments concentration and the room suddenly filled with the music of the city below. Children laughing and shrieking as they played, the cry of the Market vendors, the hum of people of all races and ages talking and shouting and living their lives, then real music from one of the many taverns, a merry tune that they both recognised as the ballad of Vox Machina.

One of Scanlan’s compositions that remained popular especially in Whitestone.

Keyleth watched Percy take it in, his features softening and a smile at last on his lips as she let the sounds fade again and the window shut.

“Whitestone lives, Percy. That is your legacy remember? You live as long as Whitestone lives, and it is thriving.” She leant down and kissed his withered damp cheek. 

“You did that.”

“Damnit Keyleth.” he whispered hoarsely. 

“You were always bloody right you know, it was infuriating.”

Keyleth brought the water to his lips once more frowning as she felt his skin grow even colder. 

Percy closed his eyes slowly. 

Quickly Keyleth sent a message to Vex. 

Moments later the door opened and Vex entered her children, and the few new grandchildren followed her in.

Keyleth made to step back but Vex stopped her with a look. Gently she placed her hand on her husband’s forehead. His eyes fluttered open. 

He looked up at her face his own brightening even as his skin grew paler. His eyes took in his family but his smile was for Vex’ahlia.

“I’ll tell Vax you say hi.” He breathed, before his eyes closed.

There was a flutter of wings. The family and Keyleth turned as one to see a raven, larger than most landed on the windowsill regarding them with intelligent eyes. It let out a single cry and they heard a final long sigh from the old man in the bed. 

Keyleth didn’t need to look to know. She felt Vex sink to her knees beside the bed. There was a silence broken by the beginnings of mourning from the gathered children. Those with small children of their own whispered broken words too them and left the room. 

The Voice of the Tempest kept her gaze on the Raven who returned it. She felt the tears fall and didn’t wipe them away. She wanted to say something, anything, but her throat closed up and the Raven took flight leaving a single long feather gleaming on the windowsill.


End file.
